Growth and characterization of highly oriented gadolinia-doped ceria (111) thin films on zirconia (111)/sapphire (0001) substrates

    Authors

    D. Bera; Svnt Kuchibhatla; S. Azad; L. Saraf; C. M. Wang; V. Shutthanandan; P. Nachimuthu; D. E. McCready; M. H. Engelhard; O. A. Marina; D. R. Baer; S. Seal;S. Thevuthasan

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Thin Solid Films

    Keywords

    highly oriented gadolinia-doped ceria; ionic conductivity; solid oxide; fuel cell; X-ray diffraction pole-figure analysis; transmission electron; microscopy; OXIDE FUEL-CELLS; ELECTROLYTES; CONDUCTIVITY; Materials Science, Multidisciplinary; Materials Science, Coatings &; Films; Physics, Applied; Physics, Condensed Matter

    Abstract

    Highly-oriented pure and gadolinia-doped ceria thin films have been grown on pure and zirconia (ZrO(2)) (111)-buffered sapphire (Al(2)O(3)) (0001) substrates using oxygen plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy to understand the oxygen ionic transport processes in ceria based oxide thin films. Gadolinia-doped ceria films grown on sapphire substrate show polycrystalline features due to structural deformations resulting from the large lattice mismatch between the Al(2)O(3) (0001) substrate and the ceria films. In contrast, the films, grown on a thin layer of ZrO(2) (111) buffered sapphire substrate, appear to be highly oriented in nature with predominant double domain (111) orientation. Oxygen ionic conductivity of these gadolinia-doped ceria films was measured as a function of gadolinium concentration and found to be efficient at relatively lower temperature operation compared to that of bulk polycrystalline, single crystalline yttria stabilized zirconia and gadolinia-doped polycrystalline ceria. Relative improvement in ionic conductivity of highly oriented gadolinia-doped ceria films (in the lower temperature regime) can be ascribed to the increased oxygen vacancies due to presence of Gd as well as high quality of the oriented thin films. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Thin Solid Films

    Volume

    516

    Issue/Number

    18

    Publication Date

    1-1-2008

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    6088

    Last Page

    6094

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000258037300027

    ISSN

    0040-6090

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